Hint: it’s the same tool you’re using for your VIPs
Do your hosts have quotas for the number of players they must engage with each month? Do they make reservations for their players? Do they follow-up on VIP special event invites? Should they be doing all of these things?
It isn’t quite that simple, but for now, the answer is yes … and no.
Let’s assume that 5-10% of your players are hosted players. I think we can all agree that these hosted players are well engaged with your property. They receive weekly/monthly promotions and direct mail pieces, along with personalized phone calls from their host. Rightfully so, the hosts are doing their job by keeping these VIP players top of mind for every promotion or offer available. But what about the non-hosted players who make up the other 90 – 95%? How engaged is your property with these players? The non-hosted players receive weekly/monthly promotions and direct mail pieces as well, but what about those personalized phone calls? It works for the host team, so why isn’t it being used for everyone else?
Based on my conversations with casino marketing executives, there are two main reasons for not engaging this 90-95% of the player database with outbound phone calls:
- The property does not have enough bandwidth (team members) to make these calls.
- The higher reinvestment cost associated with having a dedicated staff making these outbound calls each month. After all, these calls are generally associated with the Host team.
Here are some ideas to think about that can help your property justify the same level of player phone engagement for non-hosted players:
Response Rate: What is the average response rate when a host calls a VIP guest? 50%? 60%? The personalized phone call to a player – letting them know that they are valued, that you miss them, or that you are really excited for them to participate in the next event – is very powerful. The average response rate for phone engagements to non-hosted players is 13%.
Cost of Staffing: Do you have a person on your player development team or a PBX team member who you could dedicate to making some outbound calls each week? If they aren’t available eight hours per day, could they be available for two hours? For four hours? If you look at your current processes and procedures, you might be surprised at the number of ways you can peel away and dedicate someone to make these calls for you.
Immediate Revenue: If you had a dedicated staff member call 500 guests in a week, and 13% (65) of those guests returned to the property that month, what is the value of the revenue that was created by the call? What is the average theo for those 65 players? $100? $150? I can promise you that if you do the math, the numbers are impressive.
